[Effects of bilateral mammillary bodies destruction on lever pressing for food reward in the rabbit (author's transl)].
Effects for continuous reinforcement (CRF) learning and differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) learning for food in the rabbit by bilateral mammillary bodies destruction were examined with the Skinner box. There was no marked changes in general behavior, except a tendency to freezing by a sign of somebody and sounds. In CRF learning a delay in the start of bar pressing was thought to be due to a decrease in exploratory behavior and a decrease of the number of bar pressing may be due either to a delay of adaptation to a new environment, or to an impediment of learning by the decrease in rewarding effects. The acquisition of DRL learning was affected, but the retention of that was not. DRL learning has been generally remarked to be chiefly consisted of motivation and temporal discrimination. In our study, however, there was no remarkable changes in motivation itself and temporal discrimination was not affected at all. It was concluded that the impediment of acquisition depended upon a general decrease in cerebral rewarding effects.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005502:Food; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008326:Mammillary Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D011817:Rabbits; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012201:Reward